Category: Weight loss

Life by numbers

It seems to be universal for people to mark occasions, events and important life epochs in terms of numbers – whether it’s a 12th birthday party or your child is counting down the days until Christmas.

I’ve been thinking about that this week and reflecting on numbers that currently have meaning in my life, so I thought I’d share…

40

It is 40 days until I’m here!

hamilton island

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, that’s right! 40 days until we are relaxing on a beach in Hamilton Island!!!!!

I don’t think I’ve ever looked forward to a holiday more in my entire life.

Another number I’m focussing on is…

19

Tomorrow, on August 20, Souljourneyboy and I hit a milestone – 19 years together. 19 years ago, we were at a friend’s 17th birthday party and Souljourneyboy asked me to go for a walk. It was raining lightly and we paused by a street light and decided to “go out”. Aww, I hear you say. It was very sweet, and the rest, as they say, is history 🙂

And now for another number…

5

The number of kilos I would like to lose! I don’t know why losing 5 kilos is harder than losing 15, but there you go. It just is.

3

The number of times I have been sick this winter! I am so sick of being sick. I am drinking honey tea, popping vitamins and antibiotics and Codral tablets, sucking on throat lozenges and steaming my head with Vix vapour rub. I’m battling this thing head on.

What are you counting down for or celebrating this week?

Odds and ends

I don’t have anything significant to share today, just a few bits and pieces from the week that made me smile, or reflect, or just be glad to be alive.

A trip down memory lane…

I went to my old high school on Friday night because this year is its 30th anniversary and there was a whole day and night of festivities. It was so strange walking around, remembering parts of the school and not others. I know some people hate school but I have to say, I LOVED high school. Probably because I am a self-confessed nerd, and also because I started going out with Souljourneyboy in Year 11, but also because it was jut a great school and I had a really good education. We even invited a few of our teachers to our wedding. Trees that I remember planting towered over me and the crappy lockers we all hated are now replaced with very snazzy looking ones. It was a really nice night.

Bookworm

He amused me the other day. I was picking him up early from his classroom when he said breathlessly, “Oh Mum, I just have to quickly tell the teacher something” and dashed off back inside. After several moments he reappeared and we started walking towards the car. “What did you have to tell him?” I asked, thinking it was something to do with homework or a note. “Oh, I just had to tell him that your lungs are actually an involuntary muscle while you sleep,” he replied.

Of course! No reason why that could wait a second longer than it had to 🙂

Picasso

He really is very sweet, my Picasso. I might have shared this before, but he saw a recruitment ad for nurses about a year ago and asked me, “Mum, can boys be nurses?” So since then he has decided that he wants to be a pediatric nurse. The other day we went for a walk – just the two of us – and he told me that he really wants to be the nurses that looks after the sick babies in the NIC unit. I reckon he’ll probably end up doing it too. I’ve never heard of any other 7-year-old boy choosing that as a career path, but that’s just like Picasso. He is a big marshmallow.

Sugar-high

I have decided I really MUST do something about my eating habits! I tried Michelle Bridges last year and lost a few kilos, but lately seem to have been eating like a bear about to hibernate. One of my closest friends and I said we would try and give up sugar, but I was an abject failure. I really just need to give up snacking on junk. So why this morning I decided to bake a delicious passionfruit slice is beyond me.

So there you go! It’s Sunday here and poor Little Miss is lounging on the beanbag with a high temperature and a cold. The boys are playing Monopoly, Souljourneyboy is marking schoolwork and I think I might read a book. Enjoy your day!

Weight loss saga continues…

I made the depressing discovery this week that I have now passed the “half-way” mark of my wardrobe.

By that I mean I have more clothes in the “don’t fit” pile than the “do fit”. It started with the odd button that was slightly too tight – and now I can only get into one pair of jeans out of the five cluttering up my drawers!

I blame the bizarre combination of a bout of Giardia a few years ago, coupled with a significant amount  of personal stress about 18 months ago, which saw me lose heaps of weight. In what was obviously a delirious frenzy of malnutrition, I got rid of all the clothes that were too big, and find myself with a whole stack of clothes that won’t fit me now!

So I either buy a new wardrobe – can’t see Souljourneyboy liking that idea – or I (shudder) actually set myself to losing some weight.

I know I’m not that big, in fact I only need to lose about 5-6 kilos. It’s just that small amount is literally a dress size for me and for some reason seems so insurmountable. As does the thought of giving up the two blocks of chocolate I seem to be eating every weekend.

Anyway I have been inspired by a colleague who has nearly completed the 12-week Michelle Bridges course, so I think I’m going to sign up for the next round, which starts on November 21. It’s kind of depressing I’ll be doing it over Christmas but I had to wait until Uni was finished, because I have absolutely no time for exercise at the moment.

So…I’m taking the plunge. Six kilos gone…hopefully by January when I have to wear swimmers in front of other people, (almost) daily exercise and lots of clean food. And I’ve put it out into the blogosphere now so I HAVE to do it.

It can’t be too hard – surely???

🙂

Counting calories (sigh)

Like many women across the world today, I went into the new week today burdened by the knowledge of what I’d eaten on the weekend.

Still, Monday is always a fresh start, and I once again recommitted eagerly to my weight loss goal, promising myself that I would:

  • snack only on fruit
  • have lite tuna and weight watchers cottage cheese for lunch.

That plan lasted for about an hour, because this is what I found on the red table in our department:

As I looked upon the shiny, seductive packet of sinfulness, I calmly contemplated this question:

WHY DOES THE UNIVERSE EXIST PURELY TO THWART MY WEIGHT LOSS PLANS?

Before I knew it, I’d scarfed three down and my tuna and cottage cheese was looking less appealing by the second. I don’t know about anyone else, but once I’ve screwed up the morning’s eating plan, it’s so hard to get back on track the rest of the day. It’s like my brain goes, “oh well, you’ve had a couple of chocolate biscuits so therefore you may as well have a super-sized KFC meal for lunch, followed by chocolate cheesecake for afternoon tea because THAT MAKES PERFECT SENSE.

The other thing my brain does is selectively choose what calories it counts. The other day my Mum offered me a piece of lemon tart and my brain actually said: “oh well that’s OK because Mum’s given it to me.”

Really?? Why would anyone think that?

Another weird thing happens to me when I’m trying to diet; I suddenly have an urge to spend money. It’s so strange. It’s like I can be frugal OR I can be calorie-conscious, but not both at the same time. Clearly, being self-controlled in one area means I have to break out radically in another. It’s very annoying.

Well the day’s almost over now and while I did stick to my tuna and cottage cheese for lunch I also ate another three Tim Tams. The trade-off, I told myself, was that I had to be EXTRA GOOD tonight and basically just eat apple peel for dinner.

Only…Souljourneyboy rang and informed me we’re having homemade gourmet pizzas for dinner. YUM.

There’s always next Monday, right?